Why Africa united to fight illegal fishing

Earlier this month, over 40 African Union (AU) nations signed a binding agreement to curb piracy and other maritime crime on the continent’s coastlines. The meeting in Lomé, Tongo, drew 18 heads of state – considerably more than most African Union meetings – a fact that demonstrates the importance to African leaders of curbing piracy, illegal fishing, and other crime on Africa’s economically endangered coastlines. The deal will establish a maritime security fund, and is also meant to strengthen cooperation and communication between governments.

The Lomé agreement brings together more than 40 nations with mutual interest in securing the continent’s shores. 90 percent of African imports and exports are transported by sea, making maritime security essential to the economic success of all African countries. Coastal states in West Africa are losing about $1.3 billion annually, just to illegal fishing alone. It is no wonder then that the agreement was praised as “historic” by Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, while President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya said that it demonstrated an increasing ability to work together as a continent to solve such problems. Only a few years ago, outside powers such as the EU needed to be called in to help control piracy off the coast of Somalia.

The attention given to this problem is evidence of the vast economic impact of maritime criminal activity. South Africa alone loses billions of dollars every year to illegal fishing, especially to the poaching of abalone and lobster, prized by poachers for their high demand in places such as Hong Kong, China, and other parts of East Asia. Last year, 74 fishing vessels operated by Chinese Distant Water Fishing companies were found to be fishing illegally in prohibited West African fishing grounds and falsifying their gross tonnage, according to a two-year Greenpeace investigation. Most of those cases dated between 2000 and 2014, off the coasts of Guinea, Ghana, Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau. One report by the Overseas Development Institute estimates that West Africa could create as many as 300,000 jobs by ending illegal fishing.

Much of the illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing that goes on in West African waters is at the hands of Chinese vessels. Chinese companies have expanded operations in the region from 13 vessels in 1985 to 462 in 2013. IUU fishing by Chinese vessels has been increasing in other parts of the world as well, but in Africa, these practices pose a particular threat. African governments have historically had limited ability to enforce maritime law. One third of all fish caught in waters off of West Africa is obtained illegally by Chinese fishing vessels. Traditional fishermen, using wooden canoes and small nets are now forced to compete with Chinese fishermen using some of the most destructive and large-scale fishing methods the world has ever seen. For example, many of these vessels use massive “drift nets”, which were banned by the UN in 1992. These nets can range from 10 to 100 nautical miles long, connected between buoys on the surface and lead weights 40 feet below.

Since many impoverished Africans rely exclusively on fishing for not only income, but also basic sustenance, the influx of IUU fishing is an especially serious problem. In Mozambique, IUU fishing has reached critical proportions. A 2013 study revealed that out of the 130 ships operating off its coast 129 were foreign, and concerns increasing that within 10 years, the Mozambique Channel may be all but bereft of maritime life. With the country losing 65 million dollars a year to illegal fishing, Mozambique’s state-backed tuna fishing company EMATUM bought several patrol vessels to help protect the nation’s waters. The country is now embroiled in a multimillion-dollar international controversy, after creditors deemed the purchase too expensive.

Meanwhile, piracy in West African waters has increased, as pirate activity off the coast of Somalia has finally started to decline. Fueled by the rise of militant rebels on land in places like Nigeria, economic pressure on a rapidly expanding population, and slumping oil prices, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has yielded some of the world’s most dangerous waters for seafarers. One report said that 1,225 seafarers were attacked by pirates there in 2015 alone. African nations have tried to deal with this problem on their own, but have found little success.

While efforts by individual nations are commendable, the nature of the causes and effects of piracy and IUU fishing mean that cooperation between governments is essential to tackling the problem. International policy observers have suggested that more regional coordination could be the next step for Africa’s maritime security. Coastal waters must be protected as a shared resource. Furthermore, nations could fill the gaps in their own security infrastructure with assistance from private sector security firms. Finally, African partners in China and the rest of East Asia must pressure Beijing to reign in illegal fishing operations.

The Lomé agreement is a step towards the kind of cooperation that is necessary to secure Africa’s coastline. The signatories should ratify the agreement as fast possible in order to reap the benefits from its operation. With so many countries dependent on fishing and other economic activity on the African coastline, measures like this one are crucial to stem a still growing problem.

Impressions from South Africa’s election

South Africa’s recent general election has
bucked the international trend towards populism by consolidating its democracy
at the political centre. The ruling African National Congress, led by the popular
centrist, Cyril Ramaphosa, has maintained its outright majority by committing
to the reform and cleaning up of the party and state.

South
Africa went to the polls on May 8th to elect its sixth democratic
government. Due to poor economic growth, extensive corruption and infighting in
the governing African National Congress (ANC), this election had been billed to
be the most consequential since the end of Apartheid, in 1994. Except for minor
issues at polling stations and technical questions regarding the balloting
system, South Africa’s peaceful and orderly ’s electoral process has ensured
further democratic consolidation, proving itself as a bastion for free and fair
elections on the continent.

With 57.5%
of the national vote, the ANC has
maintained its governing majority. The official opposition remains the liberal
Democratic Alliance (DA), with 20.7%. Completing the Big Three is the leftwing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) who attained
10.8% of the vote. Eleven smaller parties captured enough votes to secure one
or more seats in the
sixth National Assembly. An assessment of the results illustrates several
significant impressions.

The fringe fails to factor

While
democracies around the world have moved to the fringes, South Africa appears to
be maturing towards the middle. Though the centre-left ANC and centre-right DA shed
the same number of seats gained by the leftwing EFF and rightwing Freedom Front
Plus (FF+), 19 and five respectively, the threat of further splintering to an
array of radical fringe parties did not materialize. None of these parties,
including Black First, Land First which rejects white membership and the National
Front which advances a white secessionist state, achieved traction among the
electorate. Neither received a singular seat in Parliament.

The FF+ and
EFF may appear to be the election’s big winners, but this analysis is superficial.
The FF+ has simply captured a quadrant of the persistently mobile white conservative
vote. Unlike the DA which has failed to support this group, the FF+ has offered
it an unabashed home. The EFF almost doubled the bounty of its first electoral
outing in 2014. It did, however, fail to make the kind of inroads it hoped for and
was expected to receive. The party which calls itself the government in waiting, whose leader is referred to as the commander in chief, which dominates
local social media optics, and which attracts a significant sector of the young
black vote, may fill a football stadium with jubilant supporters at a pre-election
rally. It could however not perform on the day that mattered. The ambitious EFF
was seeking to capture a greater chunk of the ANC’s vote, thereby taking South
African politics and economics further toward the radical left. Its failure to
secure more votes at a time that the ANC was particularly weak points to an electorate
with little appetite for populist radicalism. The EFF, with its politically
astute and ambitious leadership will now be compelled to tone down its
agitation and provide practical policy alternatives. It will have to move towards
the middle if its goal of power is to be realised.

The centre holds

The losses of
both the ANC and DA will demand introspection and clear future strategies. The
DA faces an inflection point. The party which has traditionally received the overwhelming
support of minority groups has actively been seeking to break this threshold by
courting the majority black support. Its poor performance suggests that not
only did it fail to make inroads in this sector; its attempt to reach across
the aisle resulted in its traditional support feeling alienated. Furthermore,
it was unable to consolidate an approach to foil the popular Cyril Ramaphosa.
The DA’s 6% growth in 2014, largely taken from the ANC, was received for its
campaign to Stop Zuma! – a tactic to
oppose disgraced
and maligned presidential incumbent, Jacob Zuma. This time around there was
no boogie man to blame, leaving the DA with more questions than answers as to
its future political approach and ideology. As a traditional, Western liberal
party, the DA appears out of touch with South Africa’s broader socio-economic
reality. 2019 may very well be the last time that the DA emerges as the official
opposition.

While the
ANC achieved its worst electoral result since 1994, shedding 5% from its 2014
showing, it nevertheless maintained its outright majority. It also maintained all
the provinces where it governed previously. The ANC’s powerful mandate is
largely thanks to President Ramaphosa’s clean image and his commitment to
reform. Ramaphosa, whose
popularity exceeds that of his party, replaced Zuma in a narrow victory at
the party’s elective conference in late 2017. Ramaphosa, a trade unionist cum
billionaire businessman who was Nelson Mandela’s preferred successor, has been the
face of the ANC’s electoral drive. Contrary to the traditional advance of a
manifesto, the ANC’s campaign has been centred on Ramaphosa. His accession to
power indicates the commencement of reform and cleaning up, from the top.

While the
ANC’s promise of renewal seems to have satisfied those deciding to cast their
ballots, a significant sector of the 55 million population simply stayed away. More
than nine million eligible voters did not register to vote. Another nine
million registered voters did not make their cross, and more than a quarter of
a million voters decided to spoil their vote. These numbers point to a
frustrated populace that is tired of the cycle of politics wherein the ANC rules
with impunity. Significantly, there was a clear division in voter turnout in urban
and suburban districts compared to informal and rural dwellings. The former,
the traditional terrain of the opposition, observed an enormous voter turnout (more
than 90% of registered voters), the latter, the heartland of the ANC, experienced
a considerable stay-away. While the failures of the state are collectively
placed at the ANC’s door, so too are its successes. The millions of poor South
Africans receiving state subsidies are clearly unwilling to trade what they
have for the speculative promises of populism. Simply, 17 million subsidy
beneficiaries see the ANC as the state and vice versa.

Going forward from the elections

The
appearance that President Ramaphosa is now comfortably in power is, however, an
illusion. Though he was able to mobilise the electorate and achieved a
comfortable mandate, Ramaphosa’s greatest task was always going to commence
once the elections are over. His challenges are internal to his party. He needs
to effectively deal with a splintered party wherein a contingent of allies of
the former president remain in senior positions. Ramaphosa will have to act swiftly
to neutralise this powerful group and prove to the electorate and the markets
that he can implement his promises. His first move will have to be to assemble
a clean and competent cabinet that is able enact his reformist policies. Before
the elections, Ramaphosa tactically delegated power to institutions that have laboured
under poor and often corrupt leadership. He will have to lead from the front;
he will have to act. He must capitalise on the positive sentiment across civil
society and business to work together towards overcoming the perilous situation
under Zuma.

Related

Governance reform could see African economies benefit to tune of £23bn

The latest edition of PwC’s
bimonthly Global
Economy Watchhas found that African economies could receive a windfall
of £23bn if each economy applied similar governance reforms equivalent to those
made by Cote d’Ivoire since 2013.

The continent-wide economic
analysis modelled the performance of each country across six of the World
Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (2013-17), which covers aspects such as
regulatory quality, rule of law and government effectiveness.

The analysis has found that if
each African economy made an improvement to governance equivalent to that made
by Côte d’Ivoire over the past four years, these gains would be worth around
$23bn if realised across the continent.

The countries with the largest
potential gains are those with a comparatively high GDP per head but a poor
track record on governance. Accordingly, oil-rich Libya and Equatorial Guinea
would see the greatest increase, with each person gaining an additional $400
and $200, respectively.

Those with lower GDP per
capita, such as Niger and Malawi, would see a smaller improvement, despite
their governance rank being below the average for the region. By contrast,
economies like Rwanda, which have made similar improvements to Côte d’Ivoire,
would also only realise a small benefit, with greater gains made through
further diversification of their economies.

Regional differences are
significant

The forecast also notes strong
regional differences in economic growth across the continent. Economic growth
has been particularly strong in East Africa (at around 3% a year since 2013).
Central Africa, by contrast, saw annual real GDP per capita fall by an average
of 1.3% over the period. North Africa and the Southern region experienced very
sluggish growth (of 0.4% and 0.8% a year respectively), while West Africa saw
faster growth of 1.9% a year.

Mike Jakeman, senior economist
at PwC UK says,

‘Given that Africa contains
more countries than any other land mass on earth, it is vital that we consider
each economy in its own terms. Economic performance has varied wildly in recent
years, but the correlation between strong economic growth and improvements in
governance suggests a way for all of Africa to grow more quickly.

‘It is important to
acknowledge the real benefits that governance reform can bring. Improved
governance can also help countries identify other opportunities for growth.
Although we should move away from a single narrative about the African economy,
we can also acknowledge areas of mutual interest and benefit across regional
economies.’

Manufacturing has driven the
global slowdown

Looking at the recent
performance of the global economy, the report also explores the causes of the
slowdown since mid-2018. The weakness appears concentrated in the manufacturing
sector, with purchasing managers indices for the US, China and the euro zone,
in particular, declining.

Mike Jakeman says, ‘There are
two interrelated stories here. The first is the effect of the US-China trade
conflict, which is causing disruptions to supply chains suppressing appetite
for trade. This is bad news for Europe, especially, which is a big exporter to
both the US and China.

‘The second is the Chinese
government’s attempt to deleverage its highly indebted corporate sector, which
is likely to have exerted downward pressure on its own manufacturing output and
those of its main suppliers. However, the cooling effect of the trade war on
the economy has led the government to prioritise its GDP target of 6-6.5% over
its deleveraging programme.

‘This short-term relaxation of
policy, especially if combined with an armistice on trade, could be enough to
re-inject some momentum into the global economy in the remainder of 2019.’

Related

Africa: A Rich Continent and Poor Policies

Africa, the land of good, peace and
natural wealth that is unparalleled, but under the circumstances, this
continent have been under the yoke of foreign colonialism for long and bitter
years, suffering from the problems of poverty and deprivation and being
classified as “third world.” The situation is even worse with the epidemics and
serious diseases that have plagued this continent, in addition to the endless
wars, related to religious, political and societal divisions. This bad
situation, which is unacceptable in the 21st century, urges the world to take
responsibility.

The African continent has been a source of
wealth for many who are “not African.” The African continent has been used for
many years to build nations outside the African borders and serve the world’s
people. In addition to the external hand that dominated and took over the
resources of African land, the only thing that is incredible “rich land and a
poor and hungry people.”

Africa is rich in gold, diamonds,
chromium, cobalt, platinum and uranium. Some African countries such as Algeria,
Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Libya and Nigeria, for example, rely on the
export of crude oil for about 70-95% of foreign exchange. Botswana relies on
exporting diamonds for 80% of foreign exchange, as well as Zambia, which relies
on copper exports for 80% of foreign exchange. Niger relies on uranium, which
accounts for 96% of foreign exchange. But there is another problem: the
inevitability of dependence on the outside because of the link between the
economy of these countries with import and export, specifically its connection
with Europe and America. Talk of full African independence will not be
realistic because of the economic ties of the Great Powers.

Africa is also dependent on many foreign
countries for its undeniable debt, aid and donations. Africa is not yet ready
to pursue a policy of giving up foreign aid and talking about Africa,
self-sustaining and not in need of other countries. The debt problem in many
countries of the African continent has reached high rates. The average ratio of
debt to GDP in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 51% to about 100% during 1982
and 1992.It is therefore necessary to develop an economic strategy for the
African continent that makes it a fully sovereign geographical area. Since
sustainable development begins with economic growth, all the problems of the
continent will be resolved if a viable economic policy is pursued. A large
proportion of Africa’s debt comes from the colonial powers themselves, such as
France and Britain.

The endless wars in many African countries
are a source of constant tension, making the African continent classified as
politically and security unstable area, which threatens the tourism sector and
the pace of economic growth and makes the investor prefer to invest in other
areas more secure and stable. African countries are required to pursue a strict
security policy that works to root out extremism and rein in terrorist and
subversive groups that have brought destruction, devastation and economic decline
to the country.

The extreme poverty that afflicts the
African continent is due to unfair policies that do not take into account the
criteria of community development in many cases, and most importantly, the
accumulated external debt that hinders the process of social and economic
development. As the African continent, as mentioned earlier, is a region rich
in natural resources, it is therefore important to make use of these resources,
and not to leave them to foreign countries, in other words, not to allow the
African continent to be an open and unregulated territory.

The most serious diseases in the world
today are rampant and widespread in the African region, such as malaria, kidney
disease and AIDS, which plague African people. International organizations and
bodies such as the World Health Organization are now required to work, move and
intensify efforts to reduce the prevalence of these diseases.

The illiteracy rate is very high on the
African continent and this is unacceptable nowadays. As there is no way to
progress and develop except in education and the dissemination of the culture
of science, International educational institutions should focus on the poor and
educate them and increase the proportion of schools and universities in
bilateral and collective cooperation.

This miserable situation in the African
continent has long led many to think of emigration or resort to other
countries. But most of them live in difficult conditions in foreign countries,
and the phenomenon of asylum and intensive migration leads to the abundance of
cheap labor in foreign countries and provides them with difficult jobs that are
not easy for the countryman to carry out.

The African continent is rich in natural
resources and has surplus labor, which is sufficient to achieve
self-sufficiency if accompanied by a sound economic and social policy. Therefore,
African governments and the African Union must take unified decisions and not
follow the policy of dependency because such a policy will only increase the
African continent deficit and economic and social decline.

The governments of the African countries
should make their relations with the countries of the world friendly regardless
of the financial or military power of the other side so that the African
countries will not remain in the position of the weak. All this indicates that
African countries are capable and need only to unite and work on sound policy. Poverty
in African countries can be solved if natural resources are exploited well and
in the interest of African countries and not of other countries.